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I don't know if it's exciting advancements in food science or something else, but I used to be able to make a bag of chips last a month. Now I just can't buy th

I don't know if it's exciting advancements in food science or something else, but I used to be able to make a bag of chips last a month. Now I just can't buy them because they disappear within a day. What's weird is I can eat carb-rich foods and get a very different result from what the researchers in this article found. It seems to have more to do with the composition of the meal than the exact nutritional content. A tuna sandwich or a pot pie dumped on a baked potato (both options are ~500 calories) fills me up to the point where I don't even get hungry at a normal meal time. You'd expect either of those to leave me desperate for more carbs based on the usual low-carb diet sales pitch. I tried the low-carb lifestyle. It left me hungry and tired, no matter how carefully I followed all the good advice or how long I stuck with it.

elcapitan 9y ago
I used it twice to lose weight, and it worked perfectly. The hungry and tired problem goes away quickly and your body just switches to burning more fat. But you're right about filling up - that's very simply the most important part. Don't eat lots of small high-calorie stuff. Eat a real meal that fills you up. In carbs that would be fiber-heavy, long chain carb stuff, protein does that pretty much by itself.
- rainbowmverse 9y ago
  >> The hungry and tired problem goes away quickly and your body just switches to burning more fat. Didn't happen when I tried it for a couple of years. I guess it didn't help that this was the '90s when hype for the diet was making people irrational, and the people I was dependent on forced it on me. Stress and resentment make anything harder. Maybe I'll give it another shot in the future. Right now, eating filling meals while avoiding random snacking is working.
  - aeorgnoieang 9y ago
    When you tried it before, was it low-carb and high fat? Or high protein? The high fat versions were new to me a few years ago.
deleted 9y ago
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cableshaft 9y ago
I'm surprised you were hungry on low-carb. You can still eat just as many calories, and fat usually does a better job of keeping people satiated. As for tired, you might have been low on electrolytes. Your need for electrolytes goes up on low carb. Whenever I've tried a carb heavy diet, I always felt like I was starving myself to lose any weight at all (usually give up after 15lbs). With low carb, I barely keep track of calories and I still lose weight (although I have struggled through plateaus at times, those required skipping meals to help break through them). I do have some difficulty staying with low carb perfectly for long periods of time though because I'm surrounded by tasty carbs and sometimes I just want to have a little.
- ambivalents 9y ago
  I also felt hungry on low-carb. Actually, "deprived" is a more accurate descriptor than "hungry." There was a gnawing sensation during/after every meal that badly wanted rice/potatoes/something carby to round out the meal. Without them I never felt satisfied. All the avocado/butter/cheese in the world didn't sate that sensation. Maybe that goes away after a while, I never lasted too long on low carb.
  - cableshaft 9y ago
    Maybe you weren't adjusting your portions correctly. You can't just eat the same things you did before, in the same proportions, but with 'no carbs' and expect to be getting enough calories. As an example, take Panda Express. In the past I've gotten Chow Mein at 500 calories, and then put Beijing Beef at ~500 calories and Orange Chicken for ~500 calories and I'm at a 1500 calorie meal (yeah, it can get insane). But I went there recently, got Mixed Vegetables for 80 calories, Mushroom Chicken for 180 calories, and Beef and Broccoli for another 180 calories, and my total calorie count for that meal was only 440 calories. 1500-440 calories = -1060 calorie difference for a SINGLE meal, that I paid the same price for, and it at least appeared to be the same amount of food. But the calorie count was vastly different. And yes I felt hungry again after only a few hours. So you'll either have to get bigger portions (like double meat, or get an extra side that you'd normally skip) or keep some low carb snacks around to help get you to the next meal. And yeah, that does mean it tends to be a more expensive diet than others, at least if you don't start cooking at home more.

elcapitan 9y ago

I used it twice to lose weight, and it worked perfectly. The hungry and tired problem goes away quickly and your body just switches to burning more fat. But you're right about filling up - that's very simply the most important part. Don't eat lots of small high-calorie stuff. Eat a real meal that fills you up. In carbs that would be fiber-heavy, long chain carb stuff, protein does that pretty much by itself.

rainbowmverse 9y ago
>> The hungry and tired problem goes away quickly and your body just switches to burning more fat. Didn't happen when I tried it for a couple of years. I guess it didn't help that this was the '90s when hype for the diet was making people irrational, and the people I was dependent on forced it on me. Stress and resentment make anything harder. Maybe I'll give it another shot in the future. Right now, eating filling meals while avoiding random snacking is working.
- aeorgnoieang 9y ago
  When you tried it before, was it low-carb and high fat? Or high protein? The high fat versions were new to me a few years ago.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

cableshaft 9y ago

I'm surprised you were hungry on low-carb. You can still eat just as many calories, and fat usually does a better job of keeping people satiated. As for tired, you might have been low on electrolytes. Your need for electrolytes goes up on low carb. Whenever I've tried a carb heavy diet, I always felt like I was starving myself to lose any weight at all (usually give up after 15lbs). With low carb, I barely keep track of calories and I still lose weight (although I have struggled through plateaus at times, those required skipping meals to help break through them). I do have some difficulty staying with low carb perfectly for long periods of time though because I'm surrounded by tasty carbs and sometimes I just want to have a little.

ambivalents 9y ago
I also felt hungry on low-carb. Actually, "deprived" is a more accurate descriptor than "hungry." There was a gnawing sensation during/after every meal that badly wanted rice/potatoes/something carby to round out the meal. Without them I never felt satisfied. All the avocado/butter/cheese in the world didn't sate that sensation. Maybe that goes away after a while, I never lasted too long on low carb.
- cableshaft 9y ago
  Maybe you weren't adjusting your portions correctly. You can't just eat the same things you did before, in the same proportions, but with 'no carbs' and expect to be getting enough calories. As an example, take Panda Express. In the past I've gotten Chow Mein at 500 calories, and then put Beijing Beef at ~500 calories and Orange Chicken for ~500 calories and I'm at a 1500 calorie meal (yeah, it can get insane). But I went there recently, got Mixed Vegetables for 80 calories, Mushroom Chicken for 180 calories, and Beef and Broccoli for another 180 calories, and my total calorie count for that meal was only 440 calories. 1500-440 calories = -1060 calorie difference for a SINGLE meal, that I paid the same price for, and it at least appeared to be the same amount of food. But the calorie count was vastly different. And yes I felt hungry again after only a few hours. So you'll either have to get bigger portions (like double meat, or get an extra side that you'd normally skip) or keep some low carb snacks around to help get you to the next meal. And yeah, that does mean it tends to be a more expensive diet than others, at least if you don't start cooking at home more.